Xenoblade Chronicles X Gets New E3 Trailer

The Second Installment of the Series is Set for 2015

Announced all the way back in January 2013 under the working title 'X', Xenoblade Chronicles X finally has a name--and a release window. It's the successor to Monolith Soft's last Wii-exclusive JRPG, Xenoblade Chronicles, and will be coming to the Wii U sometime in 2015.

The next massive sci-fi role-playing game from Monolith Soft, the creators of Baten Kaitos and Xenoblade Chronicles, comes exclusively to Wii U. A terrible intergalactic war leaves just a handful of Earth survivors trying to live in a beautiful yet hostile environment.

In this future Wii U title, players will be able to customize the main character's gender, shape, height, skin color, voice, and tattoos. Characters will also have different combat and defensive skills or Arts. There will also be weaponized mechs in which players can explore the game's open world. There is no confirmation on the number of players, as Nintendo just lists that as TBD, but the press release states that there will be a focus on battling enemies of all shapes and sizes while building on the original Xenoblade's battle system.

A trailer shown during Nintendo's E3 2014 press conference revealed some information about the game's story. It appears that humanity has been forcibly removed from Earth--that, or the Earth has been destroyed, it's not entirely clear. But what is clear is that there are a ton of folks riding awesome looking mechs and blowing stuff up, seemingly in hopes of inhabiting a new planet.

The Xenoblade Chronicles series is known for honoring its JRPG traditions with its story and gameplay style. In the first in Xenoblade Chronicles, you play an orphaned young hero who, for reasons unexplained, is the only one capable of saving the world from a mysterious evil.

The series has a non-linear game world that allows players to explore the world while gathering loot and fighting in combat battles. Once in a battle, basic attacks happen automatically, but those won't get you far. Keeping control of one character in the party, you select from an ever-widening selection of Talents – special moves, essentially – that recharge over time. Skill points are spent to upgrade skills, and each character has a set of talent trees that the player can choose to develop over the course of the game. As character affinity increases, characters can use each other's talents, a feature that allows players to compensate for weaknesses and enhance individual character strengths.

The second part of the Xenoblade Chronicles saga is set to be released sometime in 2015.